So You're Worried You'll Write The Next Starkit's Prophecy
by The Magic Catgirl
Summary: Do you have no clue what to name your main character? Do none of your prophecies sound convincing enough? Are you at a loss when it comes to describing your characters? Then this is the guide for you! Prevent creating bad characters before they happen! Learn the most common turn-offs in Warriors fanfiction! Laugh at our example Mary-Sue! This guide has everything!
1. Chapter 1

**Hello Warriors fanfiction archive. Some of you might remember me as the FIRST person to repost Starkit's Prophecy. It has since been taken down, but ah well. Anyways, this little guide is a collaboration between me and Pre-Ragnarok. Mary-Sues have always been a problem in this archive, and these are just some helpful observations and tips we've made. Feel free to comment with tips and feedback! As a side note: our example Mary-Sue for each chapter is named Eclipseshadow. Our example villain is Darknessblade.**

_**Part One: Naming Your Character**_

_"Eclipsekit woke up in the nursery next to her brothers, Breezekit and Graykit. She was so excited, because they were becoming apprentices today! 'Are all three of you ready?' their mother, Leafstar, asked. 'Your father, Suncloud, is waiting outside.' 'Yeah!' Eclipsekit said._

_Meanwhile, the evil Darknessblade (who was evil) plotted in the forest. 'I will kill Leafstar and take over Thunderclan for myself and rule the clans!' he cackled."_

* * *

Naming is a very important part of any Warriors fanfiction. Right off the bat, a name can tell you something about the character, as well as what rank they are in the clan. Understandably, everyone wants their characters to have the coolest names ever. But when writing Warriors fanfiction, keep in mind that not every cat can have an awesome name. Look at canon characters like Loudbelly and Brownpaw, for instance.

Whenever we're reading a fanfiction and we find that the main character is named something like Starkit, Moonkit, Crystalkit, Prettykit, Rubykit, Opalkit, Gemkit, Hopekit, or basically anything to do with gems or joy in general, we turn back at once. Keep this in mind: **the clan cats do not know what jewels are.**

As well as that, naming your main character after StarClan would be like a human naming their child "God". You might as well just say, "My OC is so much better than everyone else's, she's named after StarClan!" To most fans, the name Starkit just has "Mary-Sue" written all over it in general, and carries a lot of negative connotations due to Starkit's Prophecy.

Also, keep in mind that the coolest-sounding names are often the most unrealistic. We were recently reading a fanfiction where the characters were named things like Phoenixchime and Meteorblade. Those names may sound cool in your imagination, but bear in mind that the clans don't know what any of those things are! For example, we see the prefix Eclipse- used in Warriors fanfiction a _ton_. Remember the events that caused the Great Battle to end in Eclipse? The clans panicked and stopped fighting because they didn't know what was happening and thought it was a sign from StarClan. Therefore, we have canon proof that the clans don't know what an eclipse is. So why is there suddenly a kit in Thunderclan named Eclipsekit like in the writing example? This would be like a European queen in the Middle Ages naming her daughter Sakura.

The writing sample contained another thing we see a lot: writers who give all of their evil characters evil-sounding names, like they want it to be a dead giveaway as to which side the characters are on. Don't go around naming the bad guys things like "Shadowclaw", "Blackheart", "Darkfang", etc. It's just cliché. Alternatively, you can give some of the bad characters dark-sounding names, but then mix the remaining antagonists' names up a bit. Give one or two bad characters names like those listed above, and then use some neutral-sounding names like "Spottedfoot".

Remember, it's okay to give some of your characters weird names like "Loudbelly", but no queen would name their kit something like "Stinkkit" or "Evilkit". Try to be realistic. Naming your protagonist something like "Hopekit" and then giving literally everyone else in the story normal clan names just screams author favoritism.

As a side note, if the plot of your fanfiction is "canon character gets reincarnated", bear in mind that the reincarnation will most likely not be named after their former life. For example, if you write a fanfiction where Spottedleaf gets reincarnated, naming her Spottedkit is basically saying, "I'm not creative enough to come up with my own character names." If your goal is to keep people guessing as to whose reincarnation she is, then you just spoiled the whole plot in the first sentence. We'll talk more about this in the later chapter on (you guessed it) reincarnation fanfictions and the Mary-Sues they often wind up spawning.

Finally, if you're going to excuse a weird name with something like "They got a name change" or "They weren't born in the clans", you have to give a decent explanation as to why! Why was this character's name changed from Redkit to Fairypaw? If she was a kittypet before she joined, why wasn't her name changed to something more clan-like when she joined Thunderclan? It's still technically clan tradition to change the names of outsiders who join, Firestar just chooses not to enforce it. You also have to make sure the character's name doesn't scream "I'm the hero!" Who's more likely the cat with the great destiny foretelling how they'll save the clans, Magickit or Pebblekit? Likewise, who's more likely to try to destroy the clans, Blackmoon or Grayfur? Make sure nobody in the story has a name that says "Here's the role I'll be filling in this fanfiction!" right from the get-go.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2: Creating Your Villains**_

Right, so our hypothetical author has chosen some good names for her characters and is ready to write her story. But she feels like something is still missing. She doesn't know what it is, but she's so excited to publish her story and watch the reviews start rolling in. She's written five chapters about how awesome Eclipsepaw is when she checks her reviews and finds at least half of them saying, "Who the heck is the bad guy?" _"Darn!" _she thinks, smacking her forehead. She forgot to make a villain! She quickly thinks up a name and adds two more paragraphs to her newest chapter.

* * *

_"While Thunderclan slept, the evil __Darknessblade crept through the forest evilly. His target was in sight: Stonestar, the leader of Shadowclan! 'You're mine now!' Darknessblade yowled, leaping onto Stonestar and dealing him a killing blow before he could make a sound. 'Now I can make Shadowclan all mine!' Darknessblade laughed. 'I will destroy Thunderclan, the warrior code, and StarClan! Muahahahaha!'"_

* * *

Suspension of disbelief aside, what's wrong with this picture? Three things. One, like we said last chapter, prefixes concerning darkness are overused. Either writers use it for a villain, or just because it can usually make whatever suffix you tack onto it sound cool. Either way, they've probably been used over a billion times by Warriors fanfiction authors, and people (us included) are starting to get a little sick of them.

Two, we don't know about you guys, but don't you think that the plot of "ShadowClan is evil/has an evil leader!" has lost its excitement? Sure, there were Brokenstar and Tigerstar in the first series, but really? I think many people forget that Shadowclan helped _fight_ the Dark Forest in the end. They may have a bad reputation, but that doesn't always make them the bad guys.

Your antagonist also needs to have some kind of motivation. It's just not realistic if they only want to destroy the clans because ... they're evil and that's what evil characters do? You also need to decide whether or not you want them to be sympathetic, and if so, how much sympathy they deserve. The go-to method for this is the infamous tragic backstory.

* * *

_"'Darknessblade, why?' Stonestar choked out. 'Why?' Darknessblade snarled. 'The day after I was born, both of my parents were killed by warriors from your clan, because my mother was Thunderclan but my father was Shadowclan! My clan hated me after that. I was only allowed to eat once a week, and anyone could hurt me if they wanted to. There was only one cat who stood up for me, my mother's father, but he died the day before my apprentice ceremony! From that day on, I knew nobody loved or cared about me, so I vowed to make the clans suffer as I had suffered!'"_

* * *

If this seems like the usual sobstory, that's because Warriors fanfiction writers _love _giving their villains the most unrealistic pasts ever written as long as it makes it seem like the villain isn't entirely at fault for their actions. The trick with writing a sympathetic villain is making them believable enough to where your readers pity them, but not so believable to where your readers are trying to justify them. If your review section is full of people shrieking about how misunderstood the villain is and trying to excuse him attempting to kill every kit in the nursery, you may have done your job too well. (For a real-life example of this phenomenon, see 90% of Scourge's fanbase) We'll go more into detail on writing good histories for your characters later.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Chapter Three: Writing A Prophecy_**

_"Meanwhile, Wildbird, the ThunderClan medicine cat, was asleep in her nest, dreaming. In her dream, she was in StarClan! 'Hello?' she called out. 'Does StarClan have a prophecy for me?'_

_A white cat with blue-green eyes appeared next to her - Whitefrost, the last ThunderClan medicine cat! She said, 'A great darkness is coming. It will strike all the clans with the fierceness of a well-forged blade.'_

_'No!' Wildbird cried. 'Can anything stop it?'_

_Whitefrost nodded. 'Yes. This darkness can only be shadowed by one thing - an eclipse of evil by the forces of good.' Without another word, Wildbird's former mentor vanished._

_Wildbird woke up, her fur still on end. 'What a strange prophecy,' she said. 'I wonder whatever it could have meant.'"_

* * *

The center of almost every single Warriors fanfiction ever written is the prophecy from StarClan. Now, some fanmade prophecies are just as good as the canon ones, if not better. But let's be honest here: a lot more of them suck. If these two to four lines of dialogue are going to be the center of your story's plot, you _cannot_ make it obvious as to who will be involved! If a fanfiction's prophecy is something like "The [insert poorly-disguised villain name here] will be defeated by the [insert poorly-disguised hero name here] and peace will come", we always stop reading at once. What's the point of writing a story when you give the whole plot away in the prologue? And another thing: the prophecy doesn't always have to kick the story off. Heck, pull a Harry Potter and don't reveal it to anyone, not even the readers, until the story is over halfway through! This can help keep suspense about the main character's involvement in the grand scheme of things, and can also help keep the plot from writing itself.

As well as that, the cats most likely to receive a prophecy are the medicine cat, the medicine cat apprentice, and/or the leader. If one of your characters receives the prophecy and isn't either a medicine cat, a medicine cat apprentice, and/or a leader, you're basically sticking a big badge on them saying "StarClan's favorite!" Remember, medicine cats and leaders have been blessed with special powers that ordinary warriors don't have. The only reason one of your characters should receive a prophecy is if they're one of the ranks listed above. Other than that, there's no excuse.

As a side note, we've found that the more characters involved in the prophecy, the better it often is. It's not necessarily _bad_ to have the prophecy only revolve around one character, but it looks better when it comes to avoiding accusations of author favoritism if one character has to share their ultra mega destiny with others. Plus, it gives neat opportunities to explore multiple viewpoints and showcase different character personalities. Tying into what we said last paragraph, maybe one of the prophecy cats can _be_ the medicine cat or the medicine cat apprentice? That way, them relaying the prophecy to the other cats involved would be much more realistic than StarClan visiting every single cat in one night.

But on the flip side, make sure you don't include _too_ many characters! We once read a story in which thirteen kits were involved in the central prophecy. Needless to say, we didn't even finish the prologue. And guess what? Each kit just so happened to have the prefix of their name mentioned somewhere in the prophecy! Wow, I wonder whatever it could have meant?

So, the ideal number of characters involved in a prophecy would be from around one to five, six at the most. Not that there can't be more, but from one to six is a good range if you want to keep the story simple and still have the opportunity to create diverse characters. Anything beyond that is really pushing it.

At the very least, if your goal is actually to purposely make the prophecy obvious (and you can make this work if you write it correctly), then please don't have all of the characters just sitting around and wondering whatever it could mean. Bluestar and Spottedleaf figured out pretty fast that Firestar was the fire that would save Thunderclan. Jayfeather was able to tell who the Three were almost immediately. It's insulting to both your characters and your readers' intelligence when you try to hold some sort of suspenseful atmosphere over a painfully obvious prophecy. Isn't it part of a medicine cat's job to decipher prophecies? They wouldn't just sit back on their tail and go, "Ermahgerd, wat duz it MEEN?"


End file.
